1. Field
This application relates generally to wireless communication, and to offloaded processing for wireless applications.
2. Background
Various types of devices including, for example, cell phones, computers, and associated peripherals may utilize wireless communication technology to communicate with one another and with other devices. To facilitate such wireless communication, these devices perform various operations associated with the transmission and reception of data via one or more wireless communication links (e.g., a wireless network).
In a typical scenario a first device (e.g., a headset) may communicate via a wireless communication link (e.g., Bluetooth) with a second device (e.g., a cell phone) to send data to and receive data from a remotely-located device (e.g., a communication device connected to the Internet). Here, the first device may include a transducer (e.g., a microphone) or some other mechanism that generates data to be sent to the remote device. In addition, the first device performs various processing operations to facilitate transmitting the generated data to the second device via the wireless communication link. For example, the first device may convert analog generated data to digital data, attempt to improve one or more characteristics of the data, compress the data, and encode the data for transmission to the second device via the wireless communication link.
The second device may then perform various operations to facilitate transmission of the data to the remote device. For example, the second device may decode the data from the format used for the wireless communication link and then re-encode the data into an appropriate communication format for transmission over a network (e.g., a cellular network) to the intended destination.
Complementary operations may be performed for data traveling in the opposite direction. For example, upon receipt of data destined for the first device, the second device may perform various operations such as decoding data received via the network, decompressing the data as necessary, and re-encoding the data for transmission via the communication link to the first device. The first device may then perform operations such as decoding the received data and processing the decoded data, as necessary. The first device may then convert this digital data to analog data and provide the analog data to another transducer (e.g., a speaker).
From the above it may be appreciated that different devices in the communication system may have different processing requirements and, hence, different processing capabilities. In some cases, however, the processing capabilities conventionally associated with a given device may hinder or otherwise negatively affect other desirable features of the device. For example, in some applications it is desirable for a mobile device to be as small as possible and to consume as little power as possible. In practice, however, meeting these design goals may be difficult due to the processing requirements of the device.